181. The article also took to task local officials who had lagged behind in implementing collectivization. Pravda, March 2, 1930; Izvestiia, March 2, 1930; Sochineniia, XII: 191–9. The politburo had voted to have Stalin “publish an article in the newspapers,” but it remains unclear whether he had discussed beforehand the specific content of his article and its self-exculpatory character. The politburo protocol was approved by telephone polling; Stalin’s signature on it is from a stamp. A secret report to Orjonikidze from Balytsky, OGPU chief in Ukraine, on Feb. 25, and another the next day from party officials in Kharkov to Molotov, detailed both massive peasant resistance and the idea that local officials provoked dangerous peasant rebellion in key border regions by improperly implementing collectivization, the very language Stalin would use in his article. Adibekov et al., Politbiuro TsK RKP (b)—VKP (b): povestki dnia zasedanii, II: 25; Danilov et al., Tragediia sovetskoi derevni, II: 270 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 778, l. 5), 832–33n101 (APRF, f. 3, op. 30, d. 145, l. 138–44, 146–7). Syrtsov, who served on the key politburo commission on collective farms, in a speech to the Institute for Red Professors on Feb. 20, 1930, which was only published (March 15) after Stalin’s article, foreshadowed many of his themes: Bol’shevik, 1930, no. 5: 47, 51.
182. Sevost’ianov et al., “Sovershenno sekretno,” VIII/ii: 1253–4 (TsA FSB, f. 2, op. 8, d. 257, l. 18), 1257–8 (l. 15–7), 1258–1344 (d. 679, l. 181–319). Yagoda, a mere five days after Stalin’s “Dizzy” article, reported to him that many regions were engaged in “conciliatory approaches to the kulak . . . defense of the kulak.” Danilov et al., Tragediia sovetskoi derevni, II: 292–302 (TsA FSB, f. 2, op. 8, d. 40, l. 6–17). Stalin met with Yagoda that same day. Na prieme, 32 (March 7, 1930).
183. In fact, Balytsky was in the field commanding the crackdown; Stalin on the phone had reached Balytsky’s deputy, Israel Leplyovsky. Vasil’ev and Viola, Kollektivizatsiia i krest’ianskoe soprotivlenie, 221–2 (TsGAOO Ukrainy, f. 1, op. 20, d. 3154, l. 11: March 19, 1930), 233 (RGASPI, f. 85, op. 1/s, d. 125, l. 2–2ob.: no later than March 25, 1930).
184. Biulleten’ oppozitsii, 10 (April 1930): 2–7.
185. Hindus, Red Bread, 147.
186. Davydenko et al., Put’ trudovykh pobed, 270–5; Viola, Peasant Rebels, 171–2 (citing RGAE, f. 7486, op. 37, d. 122, l. 104).
187. Storella and Sokolov, Voice of the People, 352 (RGAE, f. 7486s, op. 37, d. 102, l. 77–8). Bukharin, too, was undercut: he had just published yet another essay acknowledging the party was always right, while citing “kulak sabotage,” Pravda, Feb. 19, 1930. See also Sevost’ianov et al., “Sovershenno sekretno,” VIII/i: 725, 730 (TsA FSB, f. 2, op. 8, d. 92, l. 1–49).
188. Sevost’ianov et al., “Sovershenno sekretno,” VIII/i: 722 (TsA FSB, f. 2, op. 8, d. 92, l. 1–49: April 24, 1930). Stalin sent a secret circular (April 2, 1930) to party organizations asserting that had it not been for the tactical retreat—portrayed as fixing the incorrect implementation of the party line—“we would now have had a wave of peasant insurrections, a good half of our ‘lower’ functionaries would have been killed by the peasants, the spring sowing would have failed, the collective farm construction would have been beaten down, and our internal and external position would have been put under threat.” He also depicted his “Dizzy with Success” article as assigned to him by the Central Committee. On April 3, he felt compelled to publish a second article denying that he had written the first on his own initiative, calling it a directive of the Central Committee. Danilov and Ivnitskii, Dokumenty svidetel’stvuiut, 387–94. See also Zelenin, “Osushchestvlenie politiki,” 47n4.
189. The functionary added: “Our public was so stunned by the unexpectedness of it that they did not know to react.” “‘Nachalo razgroma profdzvisheniia’: dnevnik B. G. Kozeleva, 1927–1930 gg.,” 136–7. The diarist Boris Kozelev was accused of right deviationism and expelled from the party for two years when his diary was found. In Oct. 1930, he was mobilized to Magnitogorsk.
